Background
notes for discussion at Our Lady of the Rosary: Thursday, February 6

The Baptism of Jesus in the River
Jordan

Then Jesus came from Galilee
to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him,
saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? But
Jesus answered him, Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this
way to fulfill all righteousness. Then he consented. And when Jesus
had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens
were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, the
Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:13-17)

1. Inauguration of the Mission
of Jesus Christ  His infinite love for the Father

The public life
of Jesus Christ begins at His Baptism in the River Jordan, when He was about
30 years old.Jesus Baptism prefigures the salvific act of His Death
and Resurrection and reveals His infinite love for the Father.

In those days,
John the Baptist had been baptizing people in the River Jordan with a baptism
of repentance, telling them to repent and prepare the way for the Lord
 Johns was a baptism for sinners. By going down into the water
used for the baptism of repentance preached by John, Jesus voluntarily
submits himself to a baptism intended for sinners in order to restore humanitys
divine image.

He surrenders
Himself completely to His Fathers Will, accepting this Baptism
of death for the remission of our sins, accepting and beginning His
mission as the Fathers suffering Servant.Jesus lays down His life in the
water, not out of desolation and defeat, but out of love and obedience to
the Father. God the Father receives Jesus acceptance by expressing
His delight in His Son.

Here Jesus is
already the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Three years later, through His Death (and our baptism into it), Jesus restores
our capacity to live with Him in Paradise.

2. God
with us  Revelation of the Holy Trinity

Through His Baptism,
Jesus reveals Himself as Emmanuel and Messiah of Israel
and reveals God in the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.

The Old Testament
prophets made many predictions about the Messiah and Emmanuel.The word messiah means one who has been anointed
with oil.At His
Baptism, Jesus Christ, the Son, is anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit.The word Emmanuel means God with
us and this becomes clear at Jesus Baptism.

John, his disciples
and others present experienced Christs baptism in a supernatural light.The Fathers voice announces that the same Jesus emerging
from the Jordans waters is the Son of God.Those present could also see that the
relationship between the Father and the Son is a bond in the Holy Spirit,
represented by the Dove, the same Spirit that Christ receives in His Baptism
and has come to bring to the world.

3.Transformation of Human Repentance into Divine Grace

Our Holy Father
says the mystery of Jesus baptism is this  that Jesus came to
the Jordan to give birth to a new order  to transform human repentance
into divine grace with the baptism of revelation. The transformation
is shown to us in the revelation of Christs divinity by the Father 
at the moment of His Baptism, Jesus transforms the baptism of repentance
preached by John into the baptism of revelation, pointing the way to the baptism of grace that He will establish at His Death.

Through Jesus
participation in Johns baptism of repentance (intended for sinners),
we are inwardly transformed by Him, of whom the Father stated, This
is my Son, but Jesus also becomes outwardly similar to us.Jesus asks John to pour water on Him so that, in identifying with our
sinful condition, He could begin to eliminate the alienation caused by sin
that keeps us separated from God and our true selves, created in the image
and likeness of God.Despite
the suffering involved during His public life and ultimately His Passion,
Jesus does not give up  He persists until His death on Calvary.

The Pope relates
the baptism of repentance preached by John to the suffering, abandonment and
loneliness that many of us experience in our everyday lives.Willing acceptance of suffering is a form of doing penance. While penance
involves punishment, it first and foremost is a means of conversion. Thus,
while divine providence leads us often on paths of suffering  we also
find God on these paths.In this
way, the baptism of repentance  our suffering  is
transformed into the baptism of revelation and grace.The sick and suffering, with Jesus at His Baptism, transform
human repentance into revelation and grace, not only for themselves, but for
the entire Church, as we are all united as the mystical body of Christ.

4. The
heavens were opened  the heavens that Adams sin had closed

Bethany, in the
present Kingdom of Jordan, where Jesus is believed to have been baptized,
has also been identified with:

The
entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land through the Jordan River

The
last days of Moses

The
Ascension of Elijah into heaven

All of these events
of the Old Covenant prefigure Christs Baptism and are fulfilled through
Christ.

Crossing of
the Jordan  The Israelites enter
the land promised by God to Abrahams
descendants.Many consider the
crossing of the Jordan as symbolic of death  prefiguring Christs
death and our death in Christ through baptism.The Promised Land represents eternal life  this promise
is fulfilled by Jesus in the New Covenant.

Last Days of
Moses  Moses led the Israelites
to the banks of the Jordan River but was not permitted to enter the Promised
Land. He died on Mt. Nebo overlooking this land that represents heavenly paradise.Jesus, the perfect Son, fulfills the mission of Moses and extends
it to the entire world through His mission to bring all people to eternal
life.

Ascension of
Elijah  Elijah, through Gods
power, parted the Jordans waters
and walked across it with his successor, Elisha, then ascended to heaven in
a whirlwind on a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:5-14).The heavens opened up to take Elijah, then closed again.At Christs
baptism, the heavens opened again, but this time Jesus brought heaven down
to earth with the inauguration of His mission to bring the Spirit to the people.

Heaven opening
also signifies that the power of baptism comes from God above, and those who
are baptized have the road to heaven opened up for them, a road which original
sin had closed.At His Baptism, the heavens were opened  the heavens
that Adams sin had closed  and the waters were sanctified by the
descent of Jesus and the Spirit... The Spirit who had hovered over the waters
of the first creation descended then on the Christ as a prelude of the new
creation.  Catechism of the Catholic Church

5. Whoever
finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find
it. (Mt 10: 39)

This teaching,
given to us by Christ later in his public life, summarizes the meaning of
the Mystery of His Baptism.Jesus submission to the baptism
of John shows us how much we need to go out of ourselves if we are to
find ourselves.The incomparable
beauty of Christs gesture compels us.We cannot find the secret of the world in ourselves.It is found only in the death and resurrection
of the Son of God.

Through Baptism, the Christian
is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates
his death and resurrection.The
Christian must enter into this mystery of humble self-abasement and repentance,
go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be reborn of
water and the Spirit so as to become the Fathers beloved son in the
Son and walk in newness of life:

Let us be buried with
Christ by Baptism to rise with him; let us go down with him to be raised
with him; and let us rise with him to be glorified with him.Everything that happened to Christ lets
us know that, after the bath of water, the Holy Spirit swoops down upon
us from high heaven and that, adopted by the Fathers voice, we become
sons of God.  Catechism of the Catholic Church

Main
sources relied on:

January 2003 issue
of Magnificat, including editorial of Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P.